The Paris prosecutor has opened a manslaughter investigation into last month's EgyptAir plane crash, reports the BBC.
A spokeswoman told the Associated Press that it would begin as an accident inquiry because there was no evidence so far to link it to terrorism.
The authorities, she said, were "not at all" favouring the theory the Airbus A320 was brought down deliberately.
Flight MS804 from Paris to Cairo crashed in the Mediterranean Sea on 19 May, killing all 66 people on board.
Earlier on Monday, Egyptian investigators said the damaged memory chips from the plane's cockpit voice and data recorders had been flown to France.
Technicians at France's BEA air accident investigations agency will attempt to clean and repair them, and then send them back to Egypt for analysis.